The Honeymooners: It's the day before New Year's Eve, and Alice and Trixie want Ralph and Norton to take them out to celebrate the arrival of 1954. Ralph, who says he hates going out on New Year's Eve, anticipates that Alice is going to ask him to take her out, so he decides to- pick a fight with her so she'll be too mad at him to want to go anywhere. First he screams about dinner; but Alice doesn't retaliate because one of her New Year's resolutions is not to argue with Ralph. Ralph gropes for other things to get her riled, and when they fail he blurts out that he's not taking her out for New Year's Eve. Then they fight. In walk Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey, who've come to retrieve a briefcase full of sheet music Alice found earlier that day in a telephone booth. They invite the Kramdens and the Nortons to be their guests New Year's Eve at the Statler Hotel, where the Dorsey Brothers band is playing. Suddenly Ralph is in a festive mood. Moments later Freddie Muller arrives with bad news: Ralph has to work New Year's Eve. The next day Ralph goes to see Mr. Marshall to ask for the night off. While he's there Marshall has a fit over six other drivers all trying to do the same thing. When Marshall says the only way a driver is going to get the night off is to be sick--really sick--Ralph begins to bellow "in pain" and Marshall tells him to go home. Ralph leaves and Marshall calls his secretary to confirm his reservations for that night--at the Statler. In the Statler lobby Ralph meets Marshall, who fires him for lying. Marshall's wife reminds him that he also lied to her mother so they wouldn't have to spend New Year's Eve with her. Marshall forgives Ralph and rehires him, and the Kramdens, Nortons, and Marshalls usher in the New Year swinging to the music of the Dorseys. Running time: 36:33

Starring:

Art Carney, Audrey Meadows, Jackie Gleason, Joyce Randolph

Genre:

Comedy, Family